FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. 77 
the ruined piers, or lying in the eddies, he may possibly 
bethink him of the silver fish he has left behind in his 
native land: remembering, then, a legend to the effect that 
their presence there originated in the practical application 
) 
of the system of “artificial propagation,” he may possibly 
complete the circle by bringing back to the once more 
“silvery Thames” its long vanished stock of salmon. 
When historical research in the neighbourhood of South 
Kensington or Bloomsbury shall have revealed to him the 
fact that it was to weirs and pollutions that the former 
extermination of the fish in this country was principally due, 
he and his successors will no doubt be warned in time not 
to repeat the mistake which his predecessors made in 
abusing their rivers and neglecting the fish. 
